A "PEEPING TOM"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 177, 24 June 1940, Page 5

A "PEEPING TOM"

LABOURER CONVICTED 'KEEPING THROUGH THE BARS OF PRISON 4 ' "According to the Act this is a serious offence, and you are liable to a fine of £10 or three months. When a man goes peep iug through windows at young girls and frightening them, he will soon find himself peeping through the bars of a prison." Thus the Bench addressed Harold Horatio Short, a labourer, of Whakatane, when he pleaded guilty before Messrs G. A. Brabant and C. G. Lucas, J.P.'s, in thc_Policc Court oa Friday morning to a charge laid under Section 54 of the Police Offences Act, 1927. The offence to which Short pleaded guilty was that on June 19th he was found without lawful excuse, but in circumstances which did not disclose the commission of or an intention to commit any other oflence, in the enclosed garden of a residence in James Street. Prosecuting, Constable F. M. Fuller stated that at about 8.30 p.m. on Wednesday accused was on the garden alongside a bedroom, or sleep ing porch, in which two girls sleep. One of the girls saw accused's face 1 at the window and called to her father. Accused ran away, with the girl's father in pursuit. The latter had a torch and saw defendant. Complaints Received. "There have been complaints for some month, 1 ? about this sort of thing," said Constable Fuller, "and footprints have been seen outside rooms where young girls sleep." The prosecutor added that lie could not say that accused was responsible for all, but on one other occasion accused was seen by a sister of the girls. There was no suggestion that Short had any criminal intent, said Constable Fuller. The case was something in the nature of a 'Peeping Tom'. Accused was a married man. The Bench: Is he a friend of the family at all ? Constable Fuller: No, he is not a friend of the. family. He has been before a Court previously but ; t was about ten years ago, when he was young. In answer to the Bench accused said he was under the inlluence of liquor at the time and did not know what had made him go there. Defendant was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called. upon within six months.